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Corruption Trial That Enthralled the French Comes to an End

The corruption trial of a former foreign minister, Roland Dumas, his former mistress and five other defendants ended today, after Mr. Dumas's lawyer scathingly attacked the prosecution's case, saying it was built on distortions.

Speaking for two and a half hours, the lawyer, Jean-René Farthouat, said the prosecution had failed to prove that Mr. Dumas got his mistress a job with the state-owned oil company Elf-Aquitaine and then benefited from the millions that were showered on her. ''Perhaps in his passion he was led to behave with a little blindness, with a lack of seriousness,'' Mr. Farthouat told the court. ''But you are not here to pass judgment on morality. ''

The central task before Mr. Farthouat was to show that gifts Mr. Dumas received from his mistress, Christine Deviers-Joncour -- a $1,700 pair of shoes, Greek statuettes worth $40,000 and the use of a luxury apartment on the Left Bank -- were not enough to convict Mr. Dumas of receiving illegally acquired assets.

Mr. Farthouat said that Mr. Dumas had reimbursed Ms. Deviers-Joncour for the shoes and had not known that Elf-Aquitaine, now a part of a giant company, TotalFinaElf, paid for the statuettes.

Since the trial began in January, it has enthralled France, offering a rare peek into the lives of some of former President François Mitterrand's closest associates. The first of a wave of corruption investigations to make it to trial, it is being watched closely to see if France's new and more aggressive investigating magistrates will obtain convictions.

On Monday the prosecution rested its case, asking for long prison terms for four of the defendants, including Mr. Dumas and Ms. Deviers-Joncour. The prosecutor recommended that Mr. Dumas, who was forced to resign as chief of the Constitutional Court to fight the charges, serve two years and be fined about $345,000. The recommendation for Ms. Deviers-Joncour was that she serve three years and be fined about $150,000.

But even harsher penalties were recommended for the former chief of Elf-Aquitaine, Loïk Le Floch-Prigent, and the firm's former No.2, Alfred Sirven, who were accused of running and profiting from a slush fund at the oil giant. The prosecutor asked that each serve five years and pay $345,000, the maximum allowed by the law. Lighter penalties were recommended for three other defendants.

The case never lacked drama. At one point a furious Mr. Dumas broke off his testimony and seemed to threaten the investigating magistrates who had prepared the case. ''One day, I'll take care of certain magistrates,'' he said storming back to his seat. He later apologized.

For her part, Ms. Deviers-Joncour portrayed herself as a pawn caught in the tangled politics around her and doing her best as a single woman to support her two sons. Like most of the other defendants she blamed most of what had happened on Mr. Sirven, who during the first half of the trial was in hiding and being tried in absentia.

In February, Mr. Sirven was arrested in the Philippines and returned to France. He had bragged in the past that he knew enough about corrupt officials ''to bring down the Republic 20 times.'' But in the end he refused to testify after his requests for a new trial were turned down. ''My presence is not necessary here for anybody,'' he said last week, insisting to return to La Santé prison in Paris.